Jon Fosheim was selling investments to big institutional investors at the New York brokerage of Bear, Stearns & Co. in 1985 when he met Michael Kirby, an intern with an MBA from the University of Chicago. Kirby didn't want to live in New York, and Fosheim didn't want to sell investments. So they formed a company to buy bad real estate loans from banks. But where to locate? The two got out a map and looked for a warm place with an airport. They found Newport Beach.

Jon Fosheim was selling investments to big institutional investors at the New York brokerage of Bear, Stearns & Co. in 1985 when he met Michael Kirby, an intern with an MBA from the University of Chicago. Kirby didn't want to live in New York, and Fosheim didn't want to sell investments. So they formed a company to buy bad real estate loans from banks. But where to locate? The two got out a map and looked for a warm place with an airport. They found Newport Beach.

Anaheim Conference: The Orange County chapter of the Institute of Real Estate Management, a property-management trade group based in Chicago, will hold a conference Tuesday in Anaheim to discuss real estate issues, including interpreting real estate economics, new trends in shopping centers, homes sales and how technology is affecting the business. Panel members include Jeanette Garretty, an economist with Bank of America; Jon Fosheim, principal with Green St.

El Segundo-based Kilroy Realty Corp., which has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 10 million common shares, expects to use a majority of the proceeds to finance new acquisitions. The company, which operates as a real estate investment trust, hopes to raise as much as $246.2 million from the offering if the shares sell for $26.06 each, the SEC filing said.

Newport Beach home builder J. M. Peters Co. said Tuesday that Southern California's exceptionally strong housing market pushed sales and earnings through the roof midway through its fiscal year. For the second quarter ended Aug. 31, Peters reported housing sales of $86 million and profits of $7.3 million, up dramatically from last year's sales of $18.6 million and profits of $336,000. Through the first six months of this fiscal year, the company's sales rose to $179 million from $75 million.

Shares of real estate investment trusts were pounded Tuesday for a third straight session, as some investors cashed out of a sector that had been soaring for months. Fear of rising interest rates appeared to be the trigger for the sell-off that began Friday, analysts said. A Bloomberg News index of 155 REIT shares slumped 4.1% on Tuesday after falling 3.9% on Monday and 1% on Friday. The index had reached a record high Thursday. Among REITs, CenterPoint Properties Trust dropped $4.15 to $74.

A yearlong plunge in real estate stock prices has sent the first ripples of consolidation across the REIT industry. In recent weeks, two mid-size real estate investment trusts, Bedford Property Investors Inc. and MGI Properties, announced plans to liquidate their real estate holdings, and a third, Franklin Select Property Trust, has said it is considering a corporate sale.

Los Angeles money manager Trust Co. of the West will create a new entity to acquire and manage home loans and other mortgage-backed securities through a $184-million public offering, according to documents quietly filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The move to create the publicly traded company comes just four months after TCW, which manages more than $50 billion in assets, announced it had decided to remain independent and privately owned.

After years of eye-popping expansion, the real estate investment trust industry is going through some growing pains. Returns have dipped this year. Some stocks have taken a beating over concerns their managers paid too much for investment properties. Congress is prepared to rein in the tax advantages of certain so-called "paired-share" REITs. And after several lukewarm secondary offerings, rumors about a major industry shakeout keep surfacing.

During the past several years, many investors in commercial real estate have seen their property values plunge. But even as individual properties fell, the value of some real estate investment trusts, which typically buy and finance commercial real estate, have soared. These trusts, commonly called REITs, posted an average total return of 33% during 1991, according to the National Assn. of Real Estate Investment Trusts in Washington, D.C.

The Irvine Co., which intends to sell a third of its apartment business to outside investors the week before Thanksgiving, has revised its planned offering to give the new public company greater autonomy from Orange County's largest private landowner, analysts said. Known as a real estate investment trust, or REIT, the proposed financing plan is expected to provide, after expenses, $204.5 million to the Irvine Co.